‘Dialogue too often drowns in exposition, a heavy hand taking over when a more lighter touch is required’ ... John Boyega and Emma Watson in The Circle.
Photograph: Frank Masi/AP

There’s something quite perfectly pitched about the release of The Circle. First, in a landscape overflowing with headlines proclaiming that “this is the BLANK we need right now”, an adaptation of Dave Eggers’ cautionary tale about the dangers of a life consumed by an over-reliance on one’s digital footprint remains ever prescient. Second, it’s anchored by Emma Watson, coming off the back of the phenomenal success of Beauty and the Beast, and she’s joined by John Boyega, his first role since his charming breakout turn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Finally, it’s arriving on the edge of the summer season, aiming to engage our brains before they get pummeled into submission by a parade of shiny effects-driven epics with little interest in raising questions other than: wasn’t that explosion, like, totally sick?

But, premiering within the Tribeca film festival just two days before release, there’s a reason why upstart distributor STX has been so coy about unleashing what seems like a prestige title upon us: The Circle is all juicy potential and precious little else.

Watson stars as Mae, a bored twentysomething living at home, stuck in a job that fails to engage her and uninterested in progressing a flirtatious rapport with childhood friend Mercer (Boyhood’s Ellar Coltrane). A surprise call from friend Annie (Karen Gillan) results in an interview to join her at powerful internet company The Circle. She aces it and finds her life immediately transformed, working within an innovative corporation that aims to further blur the lines between our private and public lives. Its charismatic co-founder Eamon (Tom Hanks) soon takes a shine to Mae and her profile within The Circle becomes stratospheric but with the help of a mysterious colleague (John Boyega), she starts to worry about the damaging implications.

The techno-thriller is a sub-genre that’s been placed on the back burner in recent years, film-makers becoming gradually aware that a) focusing a film on technological innovation will make it feel like a relic all too fast and b) watching someone type is really, really dull. So while it’s easy to imagine The Circle seeming dusty within years, it does start as a rather convincing snapshot of the digital age we’re now surfing. Director James Ponsoldt, who also wrote the screenplay with Eggers, injects the film with some smart touches (a dark audience lit with cellphones, colleagues using instant messaging to converse despite sitting next to each other) and, similar to a Black Mirror episode, it’s all too easy to see how the company’s more extreme ideas could actually materialize.

The film is filled with intriguing questions about the balance of our social and professional lives and how they intermingle, and whether, with increased surveillance and the knowledge that we’re being watched, our behavior would gradually improve. But The Circle is all foreplay, playfully prodding without providing a satisfying payoff.

The obnoxious gimmickry of Mae’s workplace is ripe for biting satire, reflecting an increasing trend for offices to resemble adult playgrounds, but the film pulls back when it could attack. There’s a scene early on, where Mae is informed that her social media presence needs to become a more integral part of her job, that’s played for broad comedy and it lands with a thud, the tonal shifts of the film suggesting an unsure hand. This is also apparent in the patchy narrative that darts between various underdeveloped dynamics, making the film feel like the result of a chaotic editing suite. Watson’s relationships with her colleagues, friends and parents (played by Glenne Headly and the late Bill Paxton) are rushed and shallow, going from 0 to 60 without any believable impetus.

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Dialogue too often drowns in exposition, a heavy hand taking over when a lighter touch is required. Ponsoldt and Eggers are all too aware of the topicality of the film’s themes, but their ultimate finding is that, guess what, megalomaniac businessmen misusing the powerful sway of a giant corporation are bad, a realization that’s been made at the end of a dozen Bond movies. The finale in particular is a total cop-out, a drastic change from the novel that sucks any remaining energy out of the screen.

Watson has struggled with her adult roles, from The Colony to Regression, and despite an uneven accent, she’s somewhat better here, trying her best to get the audience on board with a one-note protagonist lacking in any real depth. It’s refreshing to see Hanks embrace his dark side but he’s little more than a walking TED talk while Boyega’s role is so thankless and superfluous, one expects a twist to reveal that his character is actually a ghost.

As a thriller, there’s a crushing lack of suspense. One particular car crash proves mildly exciting, but there’s a sense of forced peril to increase the heart rate, such as a silly midnight kayaking scene, and it’s disappointing to see Ponsoldt’s career leading to this. He’s impressed with underrated alcoholism drama Smashed and excellent David Foster Wallace drama The End of the Tour and in comparison, this feels like mindless hackery.

Despite initial signs suggesting otherwise, The Circle is not the film we need right now.

The Circle is released in US cinemas on 28 April with a UK date yet to be announced